Core Transformation and the Persistence Method

Years ago, there was a young man who was diagnosed schizophrenic. He was slated for a back-wards life in a mental institution. However, he had a therapist who had learned the Core Transformation method. His therapist (who is very skilled) used Core Transformation with him every day for 30 days. After that, he was no longer schizophrenic. Instead of life in a mental ward, he was now on track to lead a normal life.

He was very grateful to his therapist, and has kept in touch. A few years ago, he invited his therapist to his wedding. We now have about 15 or 20 years of follow-up on this case. He is leading that normal life right now.

Now, this is only one case, one example. It does not mean that Core Transformation is a cure for schizophrenia. Still, I think it’s remarkable and intriguing that it worked even one time, for someone who really had no other hope.

The therapist in this case used a different model than we normally use with Core Transformation. We normally think of CT as a process to do for one session or over a few sessions to get a result. However, in this case, if they had only done it a few times and then decided it didn’t work, they would not have gotten the result they got. In simple terms, we can call this the “persistence method” of applying Core Transformation.

We also know of people who have transformed major depression using the persistence method with CT. Sometimes depression can be dealt with just by working with a small number of parts, but it seems that quite often there are many parts, even a hundred or more, that come into play.

Why do some people persist in doing Core Transformation, even when their symptoms don’t go away right away? From the feedback I get, I believe it’s generally because something does improve. Even if a symptom doesn’t go away right away, we typically get an enhanced sense of inner well-being, which is of value in and of itself.

In addition, the persistent clients are often working on a symptom that is a really “tough” one. They may have already tried other methods, without any results at all. At least with Core Transformation, even before the symptom completely shifts, they notice some improvement in their lives.

This doesn’t mean that we think it’s useful to do nothing but Core Transformation on issues all the time. For those really tough cases where the symptom doesn’t shift within a reasonable time, it could be useful to switch off and use something else for awhile, and perhaps come back to CT later. There are some clients who do inner work (with whatever method) as an escape, without taking action in the world, and for these clients it could be useful to give them tasks to help them engage with the world. (Also, if an escapist pattern is identified, this would be a great part to work with using CT!)

All of that being said, I think the persistence method has its place. We don’t really know what the potential is with the persistence method, because to our knowledge it just hasn’t been tried that often. It is interesting to me that the therapist with the schizophrenic client did CT for 30 days in a row. Is it a coincidence that this is precisely what many people say is necessary to develop a new habit? In a totally separate context, I recently heard a speaker say that if we do something every day for 30 days, it becomes “our own”, and after that it is a new habit that will be easy to perpetuate more or less automatically. If we do CT every day for 30 days, does this give us a shift on a deeper level, so that our awareness really comes from a Core State in an ongoing way–even more so than if we only did the process a few times? It is a question yet to be answered!